Monday, February 18, 2019

Carmine Appice - Guitar Zeus (Rocker Records)



Carmine Appice is a phenomenal drummer and a legendary performer.  This record sees him teaming up with some great guitar players and creating one great record!  The core of this project includes Appice, bassist Tony Franklin, and vocalist Kelly Keeling.  As each song was written, it required a special guitar player to take it to the next level.  I’m sure that trying to coordinates this with schedules, managements, and labels must’ve been a nightmare, but the end result is fantastic!

Guitar Zeus is a great rock record with an all-star line-up.  The songs are catchy and melodic, vary in feel and spirit, but perfectly suited to the individual players.  So, you’re wondering who is included here, right?  The tracks involve the following players:  Ron Thal, Richie Sambora, Steve Morse, Brian May, Slash, Neal Schon, Yngwie Malmsteen, Doug Pinnick, John Norum, Viviam Campbell, Mick Mars, Edgar Winter, Zakk Wylde, Ted Nugent, and others.  Now that’s an impressive list of players, and yes, you can get it all on one record!

Guitar Zeus is not a new release, it is a reissue record, but it combines two separate albums released back in 1995, and 1997.  And for the greater good it comes together here, and some bonus tracks are added as well.  But what really works here is the overall quality of the songwriting.  The songs are good and that’s makes a great difference.  I’m sure we can still remember big names being associated with projects that didn’t produce any quality material.  Not the case here.

Carmine Appice put together a great set of songs and brought some amazing players to execute them.  It all comes together here successfully.  If you missed these releases initially, here’s you chance to reconnect.  Guitar Zeus rocks hard, and delivers the goods!

Mark Kadzielawa

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